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laid smoothly under the quilt by bim; but all this was nothing to what succeeded afterwards. The 29th, about midnight, the candles went out, something walked majestically through the room, and opened and shut the windows; great stones were thrown violently into the room, some of which fell on the beds, others on the floor; and about a quarter after one, a noise was heard as of forty cannon discharged together, and again repeated at about eight minutes distance. This alarmed and raised all the neighbourhood, who coming into their honour's room gathered up the great stones, fourscore in number, and laid them by in the corner of a field, where in Dr. Plot's time, who reports this story, they were to be seen. This noise, like the discharge of cannon, was heard through all the country for 16 miles round. During these noises, which were heard in both rooms together, the commissioners and their servants gave one another over for lost, and cried out for help; and Giles Sharp, snatching up a sword, had well nigh killed one of their honours, mistaking him for the spirit, as he came in his shirt from his own room to their's. While they were together the noise was continued, and part of the tiling of the house was stript off, and all the windows of an upper roon were taken away with it. On the 30th, at midnight, something walked into the chamber treading like a bear, it walked many times about, then threw the warming pan violently about the floor; at the same time a large quantity of broken glass, accompanied with great stones and horses bones came pouring into the room with uncommon force; these were all found in the morning to the astonishment and terror of the commissioners, who were yet

determined to go on with their business. But oni the first of November the most dreadful scene of all ensued ; candles in every part of the room were lighted up, and a great fire made; at midnight, the candles all yet burning, a noise like the burst of a cannon was heard in the room, and the burning billets were tossed about by it even into their honour's beds, who called Giles and his companions to their relief, otherwise the house had been burnt to the ground. About an hour after the candles went out as usual, the crack as of many cannon was heard, and many pailfuls of green stinking water were thrown upon their honour's beds; great stones were also thrown in as before, the bed curtains and bedsteads torn and broken, the windows shattered, and the whole neighbourhood alarmed with the most dreadful noises; nay, the very rabbit-stealers that were abroad that night in the warren were so terrified, that they fled for fear, and left their ferrets behind them. One of their honours this night spoke, and, in the name of God, asked what it was, and why it disturbed them so? No answer was given to this, but the noise ceased for awile, when the spirit came again, and as they all agreed, brought with it seven devils worse than itself. One of the servants now lighted a large candle, and set it in the door-way, between the twochambers, to see what passed, and as he watched it, he plainly saw a hoof striking the candle and candlestick into the middle of the room, and afterwards making three scrapes over the snuff, scraped it out. Upon this the same person was so bold as to draw a sword, but he had scarcely got it out when he felt another invisible hand had hold of it too, and pulled with him for it, and at length prevailing, struck him so violently on the head with the pummel, that he fell down for dead with the blow. At this instant was heard another burst like the discharge of the broadside of a ship of war, and at about a minute or two's distance each, no less than 19 more such; these shook the house so violently, that they expected every moment it would fall upon their heads. The neighbours on this, as has been said, being all alarmed, focked to the house in great numbers, and all joined in prayer and psalm-singing, during which the noise still continued in the other rooms, and the discharge of cannons was heard as from without, though no visible agent was seen to discharge them. But what was the most alarming of all, and put an end to their proceedings effcctually, happened the next day as they were all at dinner, when, a paper in which they had signed mutual agreement to reserve a part of the premises out of the general survey, and afterwards to share it equally amongst them, (which paper they had hid for the present, under the earth in a pot in one corner of the room, and in which an orange-tree grew) was consumed in a wonderful manner, by the earth's taking fire with which the pot was filled, and burning violently with a blue fume and an intolerable stench, so that they were all driven out of the house, to which they could never be again prevailed upon to return.

This wonderful contrivance was all the invention of the memorable Joseph Collins, of Oxford, otherwise called Funny Joe, who having hired himself for secretary, under the name of Giles Sharp, by knowing the private traps belonging to the house, and the help of pulvis fulminans, and other chemical preparations, and letting his fellow servants into the scheme, carried on the deceit, without discovery to the very last, insomuch that the late Dr. Plot, in his Natural History relates the whole for fact, and concludes in this grave manner, “ That though tricks have been often played

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in affairs of this kind, many of the things above related are not reconcileable with juggling; such as, the loud noises beyond the power of man to make, without such instruments as were not there; the tearing and breaking the beds; the throwing about the fire; the hoof treading out the candle; and the striving for the sword, and the blow the man received froin the pummel of it.”

1762, Feb.

XXXIV. Harvey's Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood.

MR. URBAN,

Sunderland, June 26, 1702. I THOUGHT the glory of discovering the circulation of the blood had now been universally given to our immortal countryman Dr. Harvey, and that the malice of his opponents was entirely forgotten, and sunk into deserved oblivion. But it is with particular regret that I find so respectable and eminent an author as Dr. Astruc employed in raking together the objections of Vander Linden, Almeloveen, and others, which have been long since fully answered and exploded.

For the sake of such of your readers as may not be acquainted with the affair, I shall endeavour to give a fair statement of these objections, and vindicate the menory of that incomparable man from the depreciating spirit which some envious and malevolent foreigners have shewn against him.

In the year 1628, Dr. Harvey published his Exercitatio Anatomica de motu Cordis et sanguinis in Animalibus. No sooner did it appear, than all the anatomists in Europe set themselves to oppose or defend the doctrine which he therein advanced; and this, by the bye, must surely be allowed one strong proof of its novelty. Some of his opponents entirely denied the truth of the discovery, because many passages in the ancients, of which, indeed, they might collect great numbers, fatiy contradicted it. Others pre

. tended to find absurdities and contradictions in it, and when they were beat from these weak holds, they had recourse to their last fort, and boldly charged him with stealing his noble discovery from those very ancients whose authority had just been alleged against him. Thus Vander Linden will give it to Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Erasistratus, Emesius, or, in short, to any body except the only man in the world who was able to make it.

It would waste time to give all their reasons; but it surprises me to find the judicious and learned Spon inclining the same way. Hippocrates says* 'H Toon is Teixas, rj es orva

'es χας, και εις την εσχατην επιφανειην ενδοθεν αφικνειται εξωθεν τροφη εκ της 1TXATN 6TQartins Evdotatw. Upon this, M. Spon observes, Circulationem sanguinis hoc seculo at Harvæo detectam non latuisse magnum Hippocratem textus hic evincere videtur. Quomodo enim alimentum, quo nomine sanguinem intelligit

, in extimas usque corporis partes fertur, et ab externis ad interna redit sine circulari sanguinis motu? At si sequentes aphorismos et 20, sect. 2. addideris, ii simul quasi demonstrationem efficient: he allows, indeed, that the circulation is not taught so distinctly as to explain the impulse of the blood through the arteries, and its return by the veins; but nobody will wonder at this, says he, who considers that many of the works of Hippocrates have perished, especially his book of the veins and arteriest.

Now it may be proved beyond contradiction, from an infinite number of places, that the divine old man was totally ignorant of the circulation. If any one doubt it, let him read the books De locis in homine, de morbo sacro, de regimine ; nay, even in his very book de corde, where, if any where; , one would expect to find the circulation, there is not a word to the purpose, but many things advanced which are directly opposite to that motion of the blood.

But it is time to come to Dr. Astruc, who contents himself, I find, with giving the glory of the discovery to Michael Servetus, Realdus Columbus, and Andreas Cæsalpinus.

Servetus, in his famous book entitled Christianismi Resti. tutio, of which there is a copy in the library of the University of Edinburgh, compares the mystery of the Trinity to the three Huids of the body, namely, blood, phlegm, and spirit. He says the blood being sent from the right ventricle to the pulinonary artery, passes through the lungs, where it receives a considerable change, and returns to the left auricle, impregnated with æther, from whence it is distributed through all the arteries of the body. Here he plainly leans to the notion of the ancients, that the blood, in passing through the lungs, was elaborated and turned into I know not what æther, which was forced into the arteries to nourish,

* De Alimentis. + Aphor. Nov. scct. 1. Aphor. 51.

enliven, and invigorate the body, but he does not mention one word to inform us how this blood is returned.

Columbus, indeed, who was pupil to the celebrated Vesalius*, goes farther, and in his chapter de pulmonibus, comes near the truth with respect to the circulation through the lungs. He also explains not only the structure, but the use too of every part belonging to the heart, with great exactness, excepting some small mistake about some of the valves; but he does not at all shew us how the blood flows from the arteries to the veins, nor does he seem to comprebend any communication between them. For he assigns the carrying of vital spirits only to the arteries, and in his chapter de Hepate, you will find him a rank Galenist, relapsing into the old opinion, that the liver forces the blood into ali the parts of the body.

Cæsalpinus advances still farther, and is very particular concerning the uses of the valves of the heart, and gives some good observations concerning the pulse, and the veins swelling between the ligature and the extremity upon being tied up; he also has the word anastomosis, borrowed perhaps, from Servetus, who has used it; by which he supposes the native heat may pass from the arteries to the veins in the time of sleep only, and that it returns from the veins into the arteries while we are awake, not allowing the blood to flow by a continued stream, or with an equal motion, but going and returning frequently backwards and forwards in the same channel; herein following Aristotle, who compares the motion of the blood to the tides of Euripus.

Thus far they went: and now let me ask what all this amounts to? Does it explain “the circulation exactly as it is now taught and believed ?" Can this lame, obscure, and, in some respects, false account of the motion of the blood, be compared to the complete, clear, and just idea which our excellent countryman gives us of the circulation. So perfect and full is his account of it, that no author since his time has, in my opinion, treated it in so satisfactory a manner, his book still remaining the best we have upon the subject.

* I am surprised Dr. Astruc should onit the name of Vesalius amongst his discoverers. That admirable anatomist, in the 6th book of his incomparable work, de corporis humani fabrica, has many strictures upon Galen's account of the functions of the heart, and seems quite dissatisfied therewith, at the same time throwing out several noble hints towards a discovery of the truth. His want of subjects for dissection in Spain, where he was physician to the Emperor Charles V. and the misfortunes which befel hini, probably prevented him from pursuing the subject, and, perhaps, completing the discovery.

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